Somewhere in the long, unglamorous work of sending instruments beyond the atmosphere, a sunshade for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor has moved patiently from hand to hand across the western United States. Built in Stockton, fitted with solar cells in Albuquerque in January, tested in El Segundo through March, and delivered early to BAE Systems in May, it now stands in Boulder awaiting its place in a machine meant to find the wandering rocks and comets that hide near the Sun. The shade does two jobs at once, blocking heat and carrying the power that will let the mission see what ground telesc
Inspected and Ahead of Schedule: NASA's NEO Surveyor Sunshade Readies for Asteroid Hunt
Somewhere in the long, unglamorous work of sending instruments beyond the atmosphere, a sunshade for NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor has moved patiently from hand to hand across the western United States. Built in Stockton, fitted with solar cells in Albuquerque in January, tested in El Segundo through March, and delivered early to BAE Systems in May, it now stands in Boulder awaiting its place in a machine meant to find the wandering rocks and comets that hide near the Sun. The shade does two jobs at once, blocking heat and carrying the power that will let the mission see what ground telescopes cannot.
In late July, a technician at BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, stood over the large sunshade of NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission and looked it over. The image of that inspection, credited to BAE Systems and catalogued by NASA as PIA26715, is the occasion for this update on a piece of hardware that has traveled a long road to get there.
The sunshade began in Stockton, California, where Applied Aerospace built its structure. In January it moved to SolAero Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which fitted it with solar cells. The part does two jobs: it shades the instruments and it carries the array that powers them.
It then went to El Segundo, California, for environmental testing at a commercial thermal vacuum facility, finished in March. The source does not say what the tests found, only that they were completed.
In May the sunshade reached BAE Systems ahead of schedule, a small piece of good news for a major structure that had passed through three companies and a test site in about five months. The purpose behind all of it is the mission: once in space, NEO Surveyor will hunt for hard-to-find asteroids and comets, some of them lying toward the Sun, where ground telescopes struggle to look. The source gives no launch date or test data, so the next thing to watch is how the sunshade is integrated with the rest of the spacecraft.
In late July, a technician at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, stood over the large sunshade of NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission and inspected it. The image of that inspection, credited to BAE Systems and catalogued by NASA as PIA26715, is the occasion for this update on a piece of hardware that has been moving through a chain of specialists across the western United States.
The sunshade began in Stockton, California, where Applied Aerospace built its structure. In January, the structure went to SolAero Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which outfitted it with solar cells. The component therefore does two jobs: it is a shade and it carries the solar array.
The next stop was El Segundo, California. There, at a commercial thermal vacuum testing facility, the sunshade and its solar array went through environmental testing, which was completed in March. The source does not describe the specific conditions or results of those tests, only that the testing was finished.
In May, the sunshade was delivered to BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems, and it arrived ahead of schedule. That is the detail that gives the update its small note of good news: a major structure, passed between three companies and a test facility over roughly five months, reached its destination early. The late-July inspection in Boulder came after that delivery.
The purpose of all this is the mission itself. Once in space, NEO Surveyor is meant to seek out some of the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets. Some of those objects may lie in the direction of the Sun, a part of the sky where ground-based optical telescopes have a harder time searching. A space-based observer can look where those telescopes struggle.
The source is a short image description rather than a full mission report, so it leaves some things unsaid. It gives no launch date, no figures on the sunshade's size, and no test data. What it does establish is a clear sequence: build in Stockton, solar cells in Albuquerque in January, testing in El Segundo in March, early delivery to Boulder in May, and inspection there in July. The next thing to watch is how the sunshade is integrated with the rest of the spacecraft at BAE Systems.
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